Collecting mechanism for printed sheets



Dec. 11, 1923.

P. AITCHISON COLLECTING MECHANISM FOR PRINTED SHEETS Filed Aug. 10, 1921In ven tor:

reunite Dec. 11,1923.

UNITED STATES PETEBZAITOHISON, OF NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK,- ASSIGNOB TOAMERICA-ll I! PATENT OFFICE.

' /NOTECOHPANY, NEW YORK, Ni Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

COLLECTING macnamsmron rnm'rnn snnn'rs.

Application fled'August 10, 1921. Serial 10.401449.

To all whomez't may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER AITCHISON, a subject of the King of the UnitedKingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at "-8 New Rochelle, inthe county ofWestchejster and State of New York, "have invented certainnew and useful Improvementsin Collecting Mechanisms for Printed Sheets,of i which the following isa specification, refer- 10 ence being hadtherein to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part thereof. .Myinvention relates to collecting mechanisms for printed sheets, and morearticularly to a novel mechanism adapte to unwind a roll of continuousstrip or web having wound therein dampened printed sheets andaccumulating the sheets in a pile or stack soras to be in convenientform forthe subsequent rapid feeding thereof to a printing press inmaking succeeding impressions,

or transfer to thefinishing room for trimm'ing, numbering or for otherpurposes-incidental to the completion of a printing job.

I have heretofore devised a process of tre ting printed dampened sheetswhich C011, tem hilates the winding of such'sheets in a I continuousstri or web of paper or other similar materia coated -or impregnatedwith cerasine, 'apan, parafiin, or other waxes or :0 material aving noafi'mity for the ink used in makin an impression and substantially'impermea le to air and moisture, so as to avoid the necessity forredampening the sheets for succeeding impressions and preas serving thefinish of the paper as well aspreventing offsetting upon the strip orweb. *Heretofore I have experienced difliculty in collecting thesheets-thus wound in the strip or web, with sufiicient. rapidity and 40convenience to" facilitate their subsequent handling either in feedingthem to a press upon the making of another imprint, or for the finishingroom, it havin heretofore been necessaryto remove the printed sheetsfrom 46 the stri or web and pile or stack them by a hand. uch method ofremoval directfrom 'the roll while feeding toa'press, interferes withthe routine handling ofsuch sheets whereby printed sheets will be delivediand thus impairs the efiiciency of the feeder. Furthermore, the feederis ordinarily positioned well above the floor of the press room,

and the organization of a press is such that the roll cannot beositioned convenient to the feeder so as to eliver the sheets one at atime with a rapidity commensurate with the feeding operation.

With these conditions in mind, I have deremoved from the roll of stripor web, and

-thus collected in a pile or stack sufficiently rapidly to avoid anexposure to the air for an interval which will tend to dry the paperappreciably, and without having the hand 0 an operator, contact witheach sheet.

By utilizing the strip or web itself to con-- vey the sheets directly tothe collecting shelf, it is merely necessary to provide strippers whichwill separate the printed sheets from said stri or Web to whidh theinked surface of t e paper has a tendency to adhere. This means oftransferring the printed sheet from the strip or web to the roll avoidthe necessity for using delivery tapes and preeludes possible wrinklingor distortion of the aper sheets.

T e manner of unwinding and rewinding the stri or web not only resultsin the deco lecting of'the sheets, but at the same time forms a reelv ofsaid strip or web after removal of the sheets. so that it may be removedfrom the collecting 'machme and mounted directly in a press preparatoryto receivingfreshly printed sheets.-

The invention consists primarily in a collecting mechanism for rintedsheets embodying therein a collecing shelf, a guide roller adjacentand'abov'e said shelf about which a strip or web is adapted to as rectlyfrom said strip or web to said shelf,

- bearings fgr a roll of continuous strip or web having rinted sheetswound therein, and a rewin .reel adapted to receive said strip or webafter the printed sheets have passed therefrom and been stacked or piledupon the shelf; and in such othernovel features of construction andcombination of parts as are hereinafter set forth and described, andmore particularly pointed out.

in the, claims hereto appended.

Referring to the drawings,

- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of amechanismone end of an inclinedcollecting or receiving shelf 12 provided with the usualstop flange 13.The frame of the machine 10* is free ofobstructions between the sideframes.

which are propferly positioned and held by means of suita le stay rods14. f

Mounted between suitable bearing brack- 'ets '15 and 16 carried by thebrackets 11 rebeari spectively, is a uide roller 17 of small radiuspositioned 'between the collecting or receivin shelf, 12 and suitablebearings 18 on the ame 10 fora reel 19 containing a roll of continuousstrip or web having wound therein sheets of dampened printed paper20asshown upon the shelf 12. The roller 17 is preferably positioned abovethe bearings 18 so as to avoid too great an inclin ion of the strip orweb between said ro er and'the roll upon the reel 19' with changes inthe diameter of said roll with the progressive actuation of the machine.The reel 119 is removably mounted in the 8. Garried by the frame 10 inany convenient position are open bearings 21 adapted to receive a rewindreel 22, these bearings 21 being sitioned upon the same side of insomewhat a matter of choice and determ1ned by the guiding mechanism forthe strip or weh. Preferably the bearings 21 .are located at theendjof-the machine" opposite to that where the shelf 12 is located,suitable guide. rollers 23, 24 and 25- being "arranged upon a frame 26intermediate the bearings 18 and 21.

' 'The said guide rollers 23 and 25 are arranged-upon a horizontal planeabove the axis of the bearings 18, theroller 24 being lan view. of afragmentary like parts in both the" roller17=as the bearing-'18 theirlocation be'-- arrangement of rollers will relieve the strip or web fromstresses which would tend to tearsame or destroy the finish thereof, and

also will compensate in a measure for the constant variance in theinclination of the strip or web due to the change in diameters of therolls upon the reels 19 and 22.

Mounted'upon brackets 27 upon op ite sides of the machine adjacent andlow the guide roller 17 are a uence of stripper fingers 28, the endsofwhlch terminate adjacent, or bear lightly upon, thestrip or webpassing about said guide roller. The space between the brackets 27 isfree of o structions aside from said stripper fingers so as to provideclearance for the passage of the sheets 20 along said fingers until theyare discharged upon the shelf 12.

Carried by the brackets 29 are slotted" guides 30 extendin upwardlyabove'said rackets respective y, mounted in which guides is a weightedroller 31 adapted to continuously bear upon the surface of the rollofstrip or web upon the reel 22 while 5 permitting the. gradual increasein the diameter of this roll. Leading from adjacent the top of the slotin the guides 30 is an inclined offset slot 32 adapted to receive thearbors of the roll 31 and to hold saidroll in a position where it willnot interefere with the free mounting of the reel in, or the removal ofthe filledroll from, the machine.

The-arrangement of .the guide rollers 17 and 23, above the bearings 18andupon opposite sides thereof, will rmit the utilization of the lowercircum erence of the roll upon the reel 19 as a guide for the or web inpassing through the machine, and cause the ing the ro to assist intransmitting rota as l movement to said roll and reel, an

more .fullyappearhereinafter, will serve as portion of the strip or webengaga keeper to retain the printed sheets upon the strip or web untilthey reach the delivery stri pers 28. v

T e machine is operated by means of a hand crank applied to the end ofthe reel 22, or if desire any desired means for mechanically rptatingsaid reel ma be subing mastituted, the'actuating means not terial to theinvention. The necessity for the presence of, an attendant and theavoidance of excessively highspeeds makethe method of application'ofpower to the machine a matter of indifference since it may behand-operated without an ntial loss of capacity; The construction of thecollecting or receiving shelf '12 is immaterial to-the resent invention,and if desired any other esimd shelf maybe substituted for that shown.

The operation of the herein mechanism is substantially as followspositione above therollers 23 and 25. This The reel 19 containinga rollof continuous l livery mechanism, and mounted in the bearings 18. Theend of the web is then passed over the guide roller 17, brought down-;

wardly'between the brackets and 16 and passed under the lower peripheryof the roll 10 upon the reel 19, and about the guide rollers- 23 24 and25 and fixed to the reel 22.

- n this manner, the reach 33 of the continuous strip or web which is"drawn from the top of the roll-upon the reel 19, serves to 1,5 conveythe printed sheets to the frippers 28. The sheets,'by reason of theiradhesion to the strip, will lay upon the outer surface of the reach 33and thus be brought into the operative range of the grippers or pass 20about the roller 17 in a relation thereto which will permit the removalof the said sheets from the strip or web. By having the roller 17 of ashort radius,

- there will be a sharp bend of the strip or web adjacent the strippers28'so that there will be a tendency of the edge, of the sheet toseparate from or spring away from the strip or' web at this point, andthus avoid the necessity for the strippers bearing, with an sub- Sincethe roll u on the reel 22' is designed to be removed b0 ily therefromand mountedin a printing machine, it is desirable'to have this rollcompactly wound, which result is secured by means of thefloatingweightedroller 31 bearin constantly there movement by. the

l'on, guided in itsoutwar slotted guides 30. 7

.While there 'will be no ofi'setting of' ink from the printed sheets tothe treated stri or web, and while theentire sheet on botii sides isdampened, which dam ness permeates the body of the sheet su ciently tomake it limp when the sheet is properly mellowed, neverthelessexperience has demonstrated that the freshly inked surface of theprinted sheet will adhere to the strip or web while the op ositesurfacethereof will not so adhere. t is this condition which makespossible the construction of machine herein described.

As the sheets arecoilected in a pile or stack upon. the shelf\12,.theywill fallper- 1 fectly flat, the dampness inv the sheets while 1 in thepile servin to preserve the mellow condition of the s eet so thatthereafter no .redamping is required by reason of the exposure of thesheetsto the air during and after their removal from the roll.

so stantial pressure, upon-the strip or we and is 8 9 P c to .k p theT0115 even ermit them to be spaced slightl' away strip there rom so asto avoid 'scrapingof t e sur- J face of the strip or web thereby.

, The under reach 34- of the strip or web 36 with theactuation of. themachine will,

through its engagement with the under circumference of-the roll upon thereel 19, have v I a tendency to rotate the reel and thus re- Shown n thewi g 1 g pp ent lieve the strip or web in art of the. longituthat suchmay be v r ed wlthollt w 40 dinal stresses particular y at; the roller17 from 1: p scope {lithe PWQDUOII- At the same time it wiYI prevent.overrunning H mg descrlbed h mventwnywhm I of said reel 19 and willcheck any tendency @131!!! as n d desll'e t0 (hive Pmmcted of theprinted sheets to separate therefrom, and thus cause them to ollow theupper ceeding impression so asto' utilize the strip drying out ofsaid-sheets. e

t is not m intention to limit the mven-v hy Letters Patent, is z' 1. Acollecting mechanism for printed or web with the printed sheets thereinintact until they are required for a sucor-web asv-a conditioning mediumto prevent tion to the precise details of-construction 4'5- reach 33 andbe properly delivered to the shelf 12.

After leaving the roll upon the rs e119,

the reach 34 is passed about the guide rollers 23, 24 and 25 and woundupon the rewind 0 reel 22 to which the act-hating power for the A i s pv As iheretofore stated, the positioning of p e manner'delied.

the rollers 17, '251in't I scribed, will limit the angle-ofinclinationof a the reach '33 between the rolL'a'nd the guide :r'ollerl'l, and thereach upon the rewind reel and the guide an" 25'.

' likehhood ofthe cracking of'the" surface of the strip o'r web with a,resultaiitweak'ening thereo f'aiid reduction a 34'bet'ween the roll.

sheets embodyin therein a collecting shelf,-

a'guide roller a a'ce'nt and-above-said shelf about which a strip or.web is adapted. to pass, whereby printed sheets will be delivereddirectly from said strip or web to; said shelf, bearings for a roll ofcontinuous strip 9r webhavingprinted sheets wound there- -m,."-a rewindreel adapted.. to receive said or web after the. printed sheets havepassed therefrom and been stacked'or piled upon the shelf,and-meansintermediate said hearings and said rewind reel. whereby thelower reach of the stri or .web, in its passage: through the machine,.-is caused to an- {g ge the'undersuriaee of th 'roll ofeonti nuoussgip; 4

- 2. sheets therein a; eollect' shelf a guide rol-ler t jacent and abovesudshelt about which a or webia adaptd to for printed" therefrom andbeen stacked or piled upon the shelf, and a guide roller mechanismposisheets embodying therein a collectin mediate same andisaid'de'iiverychute, a rea in,

intermediate same and sai a rewind reel adapted to receive said striptioned above the bearings for said roll of continuous strip or web andintermediate same and said rewind reel, whereby said strip or web, afterdelivery of the printed sheet therefrom, will be caused to bear upon thelower portion of the strip or .web upon said roll.

3. A collecting mechanism for printed shelf, a guide roller adjacent andabove sa d shelf about which a strip or web is adapted to wherebyprinted sheets will be delivered directly from said strip or web to saidshelf, bearings for a roll of continuous strip or web having printedsheets woundtherein, stripper fingers operative upon said strip or webadjacent said guide roller and interwind reel adapted to receive saidstrip or web after the printed sheets have passed therefrom and beenstacked or piled upon the shelf and means intermediate said bearings andsaid'rewind reel whereb the lower reach of the strip or web, .in itspassage through'the machine, is caused to engage the under-surface oftheroll of continuous strip.

4.-A- collecting mechanism for printed sheets embodying therein acollecting shelf, a guide roller. adjacent and above said shelf aboutwhich a strip or web is adapted to pass, whereby printed sheets will be.deiivereildirectly from said strip or web to said shlf, bearings for aroll of continuous strip or whb having printed sheets woundtherestripper fingers operative upon said strip or web adjacent said(guide roller and delivery chute,

or web after the prlnted sheets have passed same .and said rewind reel,whereby saiddelivery of the printed 1 ered directly shelf, bearm strip.or web therefrom and been stacked or piled upon the shelf, and a guideroller mechanism posiroll of tioned above the bearings for said strip orweb and intermediate continuous strip .or web, after sheettherefrom',wil1 be caused to bear upon the lower .portionof the strip orweb 'upon said roll. 1

. 5. A collecting mechanism for printed sheets embodyin therein incollecting shelf,

a guide roller a jacant and above said shelf about which a stripor'webis adapted to pass, whereby printedshee'ts will be delivfrom said stripor web to said fora rol1 of continuous aving printed sheets woundbearlngs of said roll of continuous strip or web and intermediate sameand said rewind reel, whereby said strip or web, after delivcry of aprinted sheet therefrom, will be caused to bear upon the lower portionof said strip or web upon said roll, and sharp bends in the strip or webadjacent said guide rollers, will be avoided.

6. A collecting mechanism for printed sheets embodying therein acollectin shelf, a guide roller adjacent and above said shelf aboutwhich a strip or web is adapted to pass, whereby printed sheets will bedelivered directly from said strip or web to said shelf, bearings for aroll'of continuous strip or web having printed sheets wound therein,bearing brackets adapted to receive a rewind reel, slotted guidesextending upwardly above said brackets respectively, a weighted rollerslidably mounted in said guides, whereby the strip or web will becompactly rewound upon said reel and means intermediate said'bearingsand said rewind reel whereby the lower reach of the strip or web, in itspassage through the machine, is caused to engage the undersurface of theroll of continuous strip. 7

7. A collecting mechanism for printed sheets embodyin therein acollectin shelf, a guide roller a jacent and above said shelf aboutwhich a strip or web is adapted to pass, whereby printed sheets will bedelivered directly from said strip or web to said shelf, bearings for aroll of continuous strip or web having printed sheets wound therebearingbrackets ada ted to receive a rewind reel, slotted gui es extendingupwardly above said brackets rcspectively, a

weighted roller slidably mounted in said guides, whereby the strip orweb will be compactly rewound upon said reel, and a guide rollermechanism bearings for said roll 0 continuous strip or web andintermediate same and said rewind reel, whereby said strip or web, afterdelivery of the pri ted sheet therefrom, will be caused to bear upon thelower portion of the strip or web uponsaid roll. I

8. A collecting mechanism for printed sheets embodying therein acollectirfi shelf, a ide roller of smalldiameter jaoent an above saidshelf about which a strip or web is adapted topless with a sharp bend,whereby printed eats will be delivered directly from said stri bearingsfor a roll 0 web having printed sheets wound therein, a rewind reeadapted to receive said strip or web after the printed sheets have pamedor web to said mu,

guide rollers positioned above the sitioned above thecontinuous strip ortherefrom and been stacked or piled upon my signature, in the presenceof two subthe shelf and means intermediate said bearscribing witnesses,this 3rd day of August, ings and said rewind reel whereby the lower1921.. reach of the strip or web, in its passage PETER AITCHISON.

Witnesses:

' A. C. CARY, 3rd,

5 through the machlne, is caused to engage the undersurface of the rollof continuous strip. In witness whereof Ihave hereunto afiixed M. Wm];

